Petrichor

 a pleasant smell that frequently accompanies the first rain after a long period of warm, dry weather

This week, we had our first rain after an unusually dry summer and with it, our first petrichor. I was August 8 years old when I came across this word in a book. And then I read it in another one and another one. (Funny how when you learn a new word, you tend to start seeing it everywhere?) Of course, I haven’t heard anyone say it, so I may be mispronouncing it.

It popped up most recently in The Machine by James Smythe. In this nod to Frankenstein, I think, a woman attempts to restore her husband’s memory after it has been removed. As the memories are restored, his violent tendencies also return.

The other appearances remain a mystery (since all of the possible contenders are on hold), but it may have also been spotted in one of these. Even if I am mistaken, they include quite pleasing moments nonetheless.

The Taste of Salt Martha Southgate

What I Carry by Jennifer Longo

Diary of a Void by Emi Yagi

Butterflies in November by Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir

Wish You Were Here

Fall sports are back on track, schools are hosting meet the teacher nights after a hiatus, and it’s almost as if the pandemic was a strange fever dream. Almost.

Before the onslaught of her own senior year demands – AP homework, college applications, and decorative jumpsuits -  my daughter read and recommended one of Jodi Picoult’s newest novels, Wish You Were Here.

Diana and Finn are all set for their Galapagos Island vacation, planned for March of 2020. However, Finn, a surgical resident at a New York City hospital feels compelled to stay as the first COVID cases begin trickling in. Diana decides to go alone and just manages to catch the last plane and ferry to a remote island as governments around the world begin to impose lock-downs.*

With all ties cut off to the rest of the world, Diana survives thanks the kindness of a few locals, who we suspect are used to catering to the needs of thankless American tourists. Although she gets sporadic emails from Finn, which truly narrate the horrors patients, caregivers, and family members face in dealing with this virus, Diana befriends a local nature guide who shows her the island’s wonders. Which, as the reader discovers, are breathtaking in their own right.   

 

*Apparently just like the Witch who froze Narnia, according to my daughter’s English teacher.

End of Summer

With summer winding down, there should be just enough time to fit in one last beach read. Packed with the picnic blanket, any of these three would be the perfect pairing while you’re waiting for the concert in the park to start or the sun to set on the sunflowers. 

For fans of Nashville

Run, Rose, Run by James Patterson and Dolly Parton

For fans of The Summer I Turned Pretty

The Summer of Broken Rules by KL Walther

For fans of In Her Shoes

The Summer Place by Jennifer Weiner

"the sexual prowess of a goldfish"

Every so often, you come across an author and immediately want to dive into everything they’ve written. Somewhat less often, you come across three at the same time.

The Startup Wife by Tahmima Anam

Asha marries Cyrus. Asha, Cyrus, and Jules create a new social media tool to bring people together around the “wai” rather than the what. This one has elements of all the things I love in a novel: behind the scenes – how does starting up a startup work – pondering religious beliefs – what gives life meaning- and smart, quirky characters – who can come up the best comeback.

“I’m stammering now, but I keep going, ‘He’s otherworldly but handsome in an almost comical way. His sentences are long, and when you’re in the middle of one, you wonder, where is this going? But he always manages to bring whatever he’s saying to a satisfying conclusion. Everything he says is mysterious and somehow obvious at the same time.’”

Intimacies by Katie Kitamura

The character in this book describes her time working as an interpreter at The Hague. She’s made friends and even found a boyfriend, but there’s a dark tension to the story she slowly unravels. Saturated in place, Kitamura examines how language either brings us together or tears us apart.

“This was done for obvious reasons, there were great chasms beneath words, between two or sometimes more languages, that could open up without warning.”

One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston

August is new to New York City. She’s found an apartment, registered for classes, and even lucked into a job. But a chance encounter on the subway has her dusting off the investigative skills she wanted to leave behind in New Orleans. She may or may not solve the mystery, but her sleuthing brings her closer to those she’s kept at a distance, including her own identity.

“The older she’s gotten, the more she prefers thinking of love as a hobby for other people, like rock climbing or knitting. Fine, enviable even, but she doesn’t feel like investing in the equipment.”

Gritty

This week's PNW heat wave (temps reached into the 90s) has me feeling a bit gritty. Hence this repost from 2009.

Hearing Richard Price extolled again and again on Fresh Air for his mastery of dialogue, I decided to venture into the section of the library where many of the dust jacket blurbs proclaim “gritty.” I begrudgingly picked up Samaritan and rushed back two days later for Lush Life. 

Samaritan proves you can go home again but may get a severe concussion as a result. Ray Mitchell returns to his home town after a stint as a Hollywood writer and soon ends up in the ICU after being attacked in his apartment. He refuses to name his attacker but a childhood friend, now detective, Nerese Ammons is determined to make an arrest regardless. 

Lush Life takes place on the Lower East Side, where every bartender has a screenplay under the bar and every waiter has a casting call after work. When a mugging goes awry leaving one up and comer dead, detectives aren’t sure who’s telling the real story and who’s just acting the part. 

Can’t afford to go see the latest summer blockbuster? Price provides an action-packed thrill with dialogue you’ll probably be hearing in next summer’s box office hit.

Under the Same Sky, But Different

“The sky was magnificent. I have always loved the sky and I do not take notice of it often enough.”

So writes one of the characters in Meet Me at the Museum by Anne Youngson. But it also aptly describes the past week I’ve spent in Colorado Springs. When not out hiking under brilliant blue skies, listening to cowboy songs under the stars, or exploring the neighborhood under threatening thunderstorms, I found myself dipping in and out of this epistolary novel.

Anders is a Danish curator. Tina is an English farmer’s wife. Tina writes to his museum to inquire after its famous artifact, the Tollund Man, that she remembers studying as a schoolgirl. Although their initial letters explore the history of this amazing find, they soon relate more mundane details of their daily life. The mundane turns profound as Anders reveals he is a widower and Tina shares she is unhappy in her marriage. Over the course of the novel, two strangers grow perilously intimate despite having never met in person. What begins as a curiosity leaves both their worlds irrevocably changed.

Firsts

On my son’s first birthday, he experienced his first ice cream sandwich. I’m sure we have a picture somewhere of his blissful grin in a face covered in melted ice cream and smeared chocolate. The summer my daughter turned seven she rode a bicycle for the first time without training wheels. Since we lived on a hill that descended into a busy street, she was mostly confined to big lazy circles in the street in front of our house. In a few weeks, they will both make their first plane trip, unaccompanied by any adults, to Austin to visit their grandparents.

I heard an excerpt from an interview with Jenny Han the other day where she mentioned something like “Firsts are best because they are beginnings.” That’s partly why she is drawn to writing about teenagers. And why we, as adult readers, are drawn to YA fiction. If you haven’t read Han's trilogy, The Summer I Turned Pretty, start there. Then you can watch the melodramatic, but nonetheless engrossing, series adapted from the books that was just released on Prime.

If you still haven’t gotten your fill of firsts, then I recommend Breathless by Jennifer Niven. Claude and her mother are “banished” to an island off the coast of Georgia the summer after her senior year after her parents separate. With little to no cell service, she can’t rely on the text support of her best friend (who she loves more than “libraries and sunshine and boys with guitars”), so she turns to the other young people in her midst. An encounter with Miah starts off as a welcome distraction, but soon forces her to face her issues with trust and acceptance.

What is your favorite "first" fiction?